


Destiny's Iron Wheel

by TheLightdancer



Series: The Phoenix Multiverse [4]
Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Female Character, Crystal Tokyo Era, F/F, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Reincarnation, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:07:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23332111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLightdancer/pseuds/TheLightdancer
Summary: When Haruka Tenoh dies in a battle not long after the creation of Crystal Tokyo, Michiru Kaioh is heartbroken. Destiny seems to have fallen apart just when it reached the point of coming true. When it turns out that Sailor Uranus has been reborn and no more interested in destiny the second time than the first, Michiru decides to give destiny a little push.
Relationships: Chiba Mamoru/Tsukino Usagi, Chibiusa/Tomoe Hotaru, Kaiou Michiru/Tenoh Haruka, Princess Kakyuu/Seiya Kou, Tenoh Haruka/Original Character(s)
Series: The Phoenix Multiverse [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1430596
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. She should have died hereafter, there would have been time for such a word

_DAY ONE OF CRYSTAL TOKYO:_

The cold had ended, and the world was on pace to start healing and awakening, and for the birth of a new era. The Palace had spanned the flattened area that had been the just barely-evacuated Tokyo, all of the Senshi and their Queen staring in delight, relief, and a great many more things, besides. Chaos had been stopped, or so it was believed, when Sailor Galaxia had been healed of its taint. This was an era that would begin in beauty. Chaos, however, had thrown one last roll of the dice, one last monster, and one last final act of spite. Just beyond them the ground erupted outward and a creature five times the size of a human being unleashed a wailing sound like a siren, the thing dark as obsidian with six limbs, and a visor that was reddish-hued. Its edges were sharp and metallic, and the thing howled again, as the Senshi moved in well-trained discipline, protecting a Queen who needed her power reserved for something greater.

In unity their attacks struck it three times, and only on the third did they manage to deal it a wound, and a dangerous one, on its side. It was too massive to be swift, but it was too massive likewise to simply fall. Still more unfortunately, the first serious wound it took drove it mad and the Youma charged through them physically, hurling them aside. Only Uranus kept her feet, trusting in her speed as the thing reached her, its vast forearms moving forward and her Space Sword maneuvering in turn. One of the arms was cut in two and the thing howled and swung blindly, and Uranus misjudged her angle of maneuver. The arm punctured her, digging deep into her side and her spine, and as she lost feeling in her legs she prepared her own attack to join the rest. With that last attack the thing made a brief mournful static-like set of barks and then crumbled into ashes.

Uranus fell bonelessly, slumped on her side, bloody teeth visible, wincing in pain. It was Neptune and Hotaru who reached her first.

"Please hold on, please."

Uranus's hand grasped Neptune's with a strength that was starting to fade.

"Michi, please.....do one thing for me."

As Saturn knelt by her and sought to staunch the bleeding, Usagi was heard dimly talking to Setsuna.

"What do you mean I can't heal her?"

"Restoring Earth and giving us the power to use our castles to start restoring our worlds is the limit of your power right now, Usagi. If this had happened a century from now.....but it didn't."

Setsuna's voice was haunted and cracked, her eyes moist from tears she was too proud to let fall.

"I hate myself for saying this, not nearly as much as Michiru is going to hate me, but you can't save her. We........we must wait for her to be reborn."

"But that could ta-"

"I know," and the brokenness in Setsuna's voice brought home to Usagi the gravity of the moment.

With the bleeding stopped, Haruka had enough strength for her final words, her eyes meeting those of Michiru and Setsuna and Hotaru, even if her full ability to see was fading.

"Dying will be a great adventure, Michiru. You are stronger than me. Live. Live life. I will come back. We found each other before and we will.....again. Michi, Himme-Chan, Suna, i love y-" and with the rattle of her last breath Haruka fell silent, as Michiru held her, heedless of her blood staining her fuku, and of the tears of all the Senshi save those of Setsuna and Hotaru. As she held her, Michiru made a single skyward wail, an echoing sound to match that which would follow with the birth of Crystal Tokyo. Beauty fountained outward and the awakened societies of the world began to adjust to a new age, and the last traces of old systems clung zealously to weapons, uncertain about welcoming a global empire centered in what was once Tokyo even as its beauties rippled outward and the world changed. None of this did Michiru witness nor care about, rocking and holding Haruka's corpse, tears flowing freely.

THE EMERGENCE OF CRYSTAL TOKYO, FIRST DECADE:

That first year was a long and miserable one for Michiru. A mausoleum was swiftly built from the rubble of Tokyo and painted in the colours of Uranus, who was buried there in a formal Senshi rite only Setsuna remembered the words to. This was the first business, done within seventy-two hours. And it would be the last time for decades that all of the Senshi would be on the Earth at once, Michiru and Hotaru lingering longest at the grave, the mother and daughter holding each other. Hotaru soon renamed herself Hotaru Tenoh, in honor of her father, and within another few months the foundation was laid for what would become Haruka's memorial, designed to show her holding her sword. Each of the Outer Senshi came up with the inscription.

The Senshi began to depart for their castles to reshape each of the worlds of the Solar System, breathing back full life into them. As they departed, Michiru's loneliness increased. All but one of the surviving Senshi would leave Earth to do this, and all but two of its planets would know life anew. Senshi would return to Earth singly and in groups, and often tried to talk to Michiru, but she shunned them, building something new. Her Fuku seemed soiled without the life of her beloved, and she would not wear a dress to Senshi duties. The last traces of old superpowers and old empires needed something to deter and to terrify them, so she built a suit of armor, mostly the same hue as her hair. It was designed partially in the spirit of Samurai armor, partially in the spirit of a medieval European knight. Only the pauldrons were the blue of Uranus's eyes, and on the breastplate were the symbols of Uranus and Neptune intertwined. It had taken her all of the first months to properly build it, and when the remnants of the American Empire made their first threats, it was not a Senshi in a Fuku who greeted the threats on behalf of the Crystal Empire but a tall and icy-voiced woman in armor that was reminiscent of an old legend and the more dangerous villains of that old legend.

A casual demonstration on an armored combat vehicle of what Senshi power could do to it sent a message the United States could not ignore. Over the next few months the nuclear powers tried to form a league until the most deadly parts of their triads were disabled by the Senshi of the Ocean striking at both the switches and the abilities of nuclear submarines to send their weapons, a precise maneuver that left nothing else affected and demonstrated how monstrously powerful the Outer Senshi truly were. The Sea-Queen, as she was dubbed, did her great service to Usagi then, Michiru having died in that moment when Haruka did. Michiru was not the one who'd done all this, buried herself in the intrigue of Presidents and rulers, it was Neptune. A cold and bitter and cruel Neptune, the ruthless soldier that Haruka did so much to mollify, to soften.

With the enemies gone, and a lapse of months, Michiru found herself at a loss for what to do. No more enemies, now, no more missions to bury herself in. Only herself and her demons, the memory of the love of multiple lives bleeding out, and too enfeebled by blood loss and organ damage to heal. Of her last words. Haruka wanted her to live, but what was a world without Haruka? Ashes. Ashes to be dwelt in by armor, a wall around her heart, and a wait that however slow or quick would seem an eternity. It was in this mood, seated on a small throne meant for the Senshi of Neptune, with her hands steepled and shadows darkening her face, that Usagi and Setsuna would find her for a confrontation that was Michiru's first real meeting with her Queen since That Day.

"Michiru?" It was Usagi's surprisingly timid voice that broke into the poisonous, sorrowful elements of her own musing. Michiru said nothing, simply raising herself up and her reddened eyes met Usagi's, the signs of her tears all that visible, her gaze cold. She saw Setsuna with her, but that did nothing to help her. It was Haruka's birthday, now, the first year since her death and the aching hole in her soul was never more painful than on her own birthday and Haruka's.

"Yes, your Majesty?" The phrase was acid, and it made Usagi more cautious, not less.

"Michiru, this isn't what Haruka would have wanted you to do."

Michiru's gaze was cold and it made Usagi shiver, as did the bluish-green hue of her armor, giving her the impression of being not merely the Senshi of Neptune but that of Neptune and Njord, a sea-deity of the same deep seeming silence and free wrath of the Ocean itself.

"Why do you care?"

Usagi's eyes widened.

"Because I heard what she said to you, at the end. She said for you to live."

"You have no enemies left, my Queen."

"i know that. Missions aren't life, they end, for a time. What will you do now?"

"I don't know, and it's not your concern."

"You are my Senshi, Michiru, it is absolutely my concern."

Setsuna took the moment to speak:

"Michiru, I....."

"Yes?" Her voice was noticeably softer than to the Queen.

"Don't blame Usagi for not bringing Haruka back. If you blame anyone, blame me."

"Why would I want to do that?"

Her genuine bemusement led Usagi and Setsuna to look at her.

"I was the one who told her that her power wasn't enough."

"It wasn't enough either way, Setsuna. If you hadn't said it, someone else would have. Better that she didn't try at all than her trying and failing and hurting herself and giving me false hope."

Michiru's eyes went back down, as she remained in that quiet sense of danger.

"Michiru, you need to let yourself-"

"Do not tell me what I need to do with anything, Queen Serenity." The words were spoken with her jaw clenched and teeth gritting.

"I don't want to hear it. Not from you, not from anyone. I am half a person left alive because the person who died betrayed me, betrayed our promise."

Setsuna's eyes flashed.

"She didn't betray you, she wanted you to live because she knew you were strong enough."

With that Michiru unsteepled her hands and levitated off the throne, raising her right leg. The impression of her with her face frozen and her suit of armor was intimidating enough that Usagi and Setsuna drew back, cautiously, as Endymion turned round the corner.

"What am I supposed to do, my Queen? If I go back to Neptune like all the rest, absent the union of Mirror and Sword, Neptune will be reborn as a half-planet at best. I would be a monster if I did that to people who deserve better. I am not staying here to punish anyone, even myself. Even if I feel I more than deserve it. I wasn't strong enough for her, in the end."

It was then that Endymion stood around the corner and held Usagi's pregnant belly, and Michiru's gaze followed his hand and went to her belly. Flashes of dreams and of secret hopes echoed and she landed on the ground with tears flowing anew, and ran out past them. Only Setsuna looked with understanding and a deeper sorrow, and told Usagi "Let her be. She needs the space."

It was Hotaru who found her, six hours later, and knelt beside her, holding her. Both of them went to Haruka's grave and wept together, and then Hotaru, at her insistence, took her mother to her room and talked with her quietly. For a very brief time Michiru came back, awakened with Hotaru, but when Hotaru returned to Saturn, a planet carefully needing attention to restore, Neptune reasserted herself. She was Neptune, until such time as Uranus returned. Back in the gilded cage of solitude of the old Neptune and the old Michiru. The eternal had ended, the immortal made mortal.

Eight planets were slowly reborn, Pluto would take the longest, but it would do so regardless. The power of time was not consistent in duration in a linear sense in Pluto, so what to Pluto was near-instantaneous occurred in moments spanning three centuries. Saturn, the realm of Death and Rebirth, was closest to the power of Chaos and the planet with the darkest energies and this required the full power of Hotaru to manage and to focus it.

The inner planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, were the most swlftly reborn. As Haruka's monument was slowly built and worked upon by artisans, the inscription laid by the midpoint of the second year, done to the exacting specifications of the terrifying Ocean-Goddess, Mercury emerged first and swiftest. As in the old Golden and Silver Eras, it was the technological heart of the Solar System. The elite were scientists, philosophers, the explorers of empirical realms and thought. The masses were various forge-lords and the industrial culture of Mercury was the beating heart of all that was in the Solar System, and the origin of so much of the machinery therein. Ami Mizuno, who had discovered a series not long before the Long Freeze, had taken to derisively calling herself Fabricator General as an amusement, though in truth she was simply grateful to see her world being born anew, and that Senshi power and her own skill limited the damage of industrial machinery to nature.

Venus was a planet with a new variant on its old dualism. Guardian Venus was the general of all the Senshi, the one to command even the Outer Senshi, and it was where the Crystal Empire had its Combined Chief of Staff, and its military element....and the most popular leave destination for the new armies. It was also the most highly and overtly erotic and to the eyes of other planets shameless realm, though this was simply an aesthetic sense and what was oversexed to other worlds was simply how it was on Venus. In its own eyes, and in the eyes of the Crystal Empire as well, Venus was a center of the arts and of music, the moreso since Neptune and Uranus, the other worlds that had their musical elements were silent. Venus emerged just after Mercury, and its culture meant that it would become the most densely populated planet in the Solar System, instead of merely equal to Earth and Luna, as it was in the Silver Millennium.

Mars, though named for the God of War, was a planet of Seers, and the only planet of such with Neptune silent and its Guardian a brooding deity of fearsome wrath in bright green armor. While Barsoom produced a fearsome set of warriors, it was not a planet of soldiers, as was Venus and Saturn, and would have been so with Uranus. Instead its warriors were deeply religious, mystical. 'The Deserts of Barsoom train the faithful' and its masses prone to using fires for Second-Sight, donning deeply inclusive armor. With each of these worlds reborn, the population excesses from the newly immortal Earth and Luna began to spill outward.

The gas giants, the Jovian and Neptunian worlds, were reborn much more slowly, due to their greater size and the greater effort.....and amplified by the silence of Uranus and Neptune. Pluto's time-dissonance factor made it the strangest world in the system, moreso than Luna, but it was not a bad kind of strangeness, just the expected element of a plastic and willfully changing element of time itself. Through that decade Michiru had been a constant presence, fearful to the eyes of mortals, and one honored with the same sense of dread as the Old Gods of the Old Ways.

Twice a year she went to Haruka's grave and monument and wept, but otherwise kept to herself and occasionally performed tasks, using her castle and her new armor to deal deadly death where incursions of various monsters from beyond the stars probed the outer edges of the Solar System. It was her first decade without Haruka and the time paced glacially slow, with combat too few and far between and leaving her aching for its pleasures, and to showcase what her new armor could do.

THE FIRST CENTURY OF CRYSTAL TOKYO: 

The next ninety years were not so different to Michiru, she retained her presence as the single Senshi on Earth full-time. As she was the mightiest in raw power terms, and her figure was fearsome, this was more than sufficient. Her armor slowly began to be reworked at points, the aqua green darkening slightly, the teal kept at its full brightness and so too the golden calligraphy and the symbols on her breastplate. Michiru gazed with eyes of dullness, her movements stiff and robotic at times, and various incidents and smells that reminded her of Haruka prone to cause her to vanish in a blur and the sound of weeping from her room. And whenever monsters or potentially hostile Chaos-corrupted aliens made their appearance, they died in such speed that neither Pluto nor Saturn were able to intervene even if they wished.

In that time, Jupiter was reborn in full, and it was then, in the forty-fifth year of that century, that the overture to Kinmoku was made. Queen Serenity, even with her realm still rebuilding, wished to become more integrated into the Galaxy and into the Universe as a whole than the old Silver Millennium had been. Galaxia was a sign that Chaos could and did have the power to corrupt Senshi if it wished, and that was the most obvious threat but there were others. Aliens did exist, often strange and wondrous, many like humans, many more not. Most were decent enough with and without Chaos, some did not need Chaos to be innately hostile to other forms of sapient life, though seldom did these species endure enough to develop the ability to cross bettween stars.

Kakyuu and the Starlights gracefully welcomed the overture, and it was with a leaden heart that Michiru received the news from Hotaru that the Three Lights and Kakyuu were going to arrive on Earth within the week. The Kous and their Princess did not know of Haruka's death, the Queen was quietly trying to keep the vulnerability from being noted, lest it draw into a kind of strife that her new Empire did not need. Michiru dreaded the thought of a Seiya so intent on the old feud and, moreso, the fear, however irrational she told herself she was, that Seiya might do something to vandalize Haruka's monument or grave.

Haruka would have been disappointed in her had she known those thoughts, for whatever grievances from the dressing room and Seiya's desires for Usagi were there for a time, the victory over Galaxia and the years that followed had turned that into a kind of bittersweet respect punctuated by friendly and not-so-friendly verbal sparring. A Michiru forty-five years removed from Haruka and lively only on the battlefield did not care what the Haruka who had died in her arms would have thought, only tensing herself. The reunion was the first time all of the Senshi were on Earth at once since Haruka's funeral.

The rest wore their Eternal Guardian fukus, and were at their best and brightest. Only Michiru donned her soldierly armor, her gaze broken-glassed but her presence intimidating, that of a barely-constrained tsunami drawing to the shore and the point of her physical proximity the moment of impact. At times she truly felt more ancient than the mountains and weighted with the memories and the dreams of time. The Starlights and their Princess arrived, and the initial meeting went well. Michiru stood between her spot and Haruka's having taken it upon herself to represent Uranus's long-term interests until its Senshi was reborn. Seven Senshi in Fukus, the Queen and the King in formal royal garb.

For his own part, Seiya had looked forward to honing her rhetorical skills with Haruka again, the two of them reached heights of skill with each other's proximity that they were never able to do on their own. She missed her more than the other two missed the Solar Senshi, Yaten in particular having a deep dread of seeing Kaioh Michiru again and knowing how insufferably smug she'd been with Neptune reborn and a whole planet as multi-talented as she was. Only Taiki and Kakyuu had noticed that the number of delegations were seven, not nine, even if the Senshi were eight. Seiya and Yaten, after the formal bow, looked around. The Inner Senshi were quiet and hidden behind masks, the reborn Shitennou by their side, even as Mars and Venus exchanged clearly romantic glances, and so did Jupiter and Mercury.

The Outer Senshi.....Hotaru was carefully hidden behind the dark and ominous aspect of Saturn, Pluto as impossible to decipher as ever. And Neptune.....Neptune stood between the areas of Uranus and Neptune with a look of distaste in her eyes that jarred the rest of a carefully stoic and fragile facade, dressed in armor that was brutish-looking. A darker shade of aqua-green its bulk, a teal cape and set of pauldrons, and golden calligraphy dotting the armor. Uranus......was absent. Seiya raised an eyebrow, but it was Kaykuu who asked the question:

"Neo Queen Serenity where is Guardian Uranus? Sailor Star Fighter was looking forward to renewing their....friendship."

Three words, from Serenity:

"Uranus is dead."

The look of blank horror on their faces was followed by Seiya's gaze turning to Michiru's, whose broken-glass look became one of anger as deep as the depths of the sea. He felt the risk of drowning in that anger and looked away. As soon as the audience was over, and at a decent interval after asking the location from one of the courtiers of Neo-Queen Serenity, Sailor Star Fighter strode outward, finding first the monument and knowing what the stupa-like building behind it had to be. She looked at it. It was a good depiction of Uranus, tall and confident and brutally effective as a fighter, standing in a combat position with the Space Sword in an offensive thrust. Tenoh Haruka the racer, the person who sharpened her own traits was nowhere to be found, only an idealized look at Uranus.

Seiya shook her head.

"What disappoints you in that statue?"

It was a soft purr, and she turned cautiously, knowing it was the heavily armored form of Neptune she would see, and so it was.

"It's not her. It's not the racer."

"No it isn't," Neptune's voice was carefully neutral with an aura of sorrow rasping at the neutrality.

"Why is it like this?"

"Only I know the Tenoh Haruka beneath all this. I and Hotaru, I should say. We do not want someone so private to have that self bared for a multi-planetary empire to see."

Seiya frowned.

"That doesn't sound like you."

"Half my soul wasn't dead and rotting when you saw me last, was it?" The waspish acid in the voice made Seiya's eyes widen.

"I meant no offense. It's just....I get used to thinking death like this doesn't count, because we can always come back."

"She will, one day. Until then....." and for a moment Michiru's composure cracked.

"I have to be the strong and ruthless Neptune because ever since I was......keeping an eye on her, when we were children, she's been my life. Before I knew of Neptune and she of Uranus. The music is dead, swimming is a pale shadow of the ocean, and a planet half-made that tortures its inhabitants with the consequences is worse than none at all. I don't know what to do, Seiya. Life is dull, it's a continual torment of existence without end, one damned thing after another from day to day.

'Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in its petty pace from day to day, until the last syllables of recorded time', I read in a play once. 'Life is but a walking shadow, a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury....signifying nothing.' And that is life without Haruka in it for me."

"Did she ask you to live?"

"She did and this is the best I can do," her voice was haunted.

"Then it is what you can do now. You'll change, Michiru. And she will come back to you."

A brief joking tone and a wistful smile crossed Seiya's voice. "I can't wait for that day, my rhetorical skills will be dull by the time she comes back."

The unexpected sympathy led Michiru to smile, half-smile, at least, and accept Seiya's hand on her pauldron, a touch more intimate than anything allowed anyone but Hotaru and Setsuna in the years since.

"Thank you," her voice was quiet.

"Any time."

From there the Starlights were infrequent visitors to the Earth, and the passage of time crawled on. Saturn was finally reborn, too, at the end of the first century. And as if the rebirth of the realm of Death and Resurrection were its own harbinger, a massive starship materialized in the orbit of Earth, a refined and purified version of a very old visitor, fortunately timed for when the Starlights were away.

The sight of that ship and the knowledge of who was there led the Senshi to once more gather on Earth, Neptune, Pluto, and Saturn trembling slightly more than any save Mars.

The viewscreen in the central citadel of the palace flashed, and with it a woman in golden armor with hair that started out golden as the light of the Sun and dipped to be red as blood. It was not a gruesomely triumphant being saturated in the power of Chaos that spoke, but a refined Senshi's voice:

"Neo Queen Serenity of the Crystal Kingdom, I ask of you that I may make planetfall and give you congratulations on your ascension, and my gratitude for my rebirth and cleansing."

All eyes turned to Endymion and Serenity, who after a beat nodded.

Serenity spoke:

"Very well, Sailor Galaxia."

A somber sad smile was on Galaxia's face as she bowed slightly, telling her "My thanks. I will be making planetfall within the hour."


	2. Threads of Fate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sailor Galaxia, seeking atonement, returns to Earth. When she arrives, she learns of changes and offers Sailor Moon a bargain pending future events. And as centuries lapse, the Lost One returns.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE, WHAT WAS ONCE TOKYO:

All of the Senshi looked to Sailor Galaxia with what was barely disguised mixtures of fear, loathing, and trembling still. It was not easy to forget the Chaos-saturated power that had killed them all, nor did her manner of moving help.

She was still every bit the arrogant superhuman being, capable of power that only Sailor Moon in the entire galactic supercluster could match on equal terms. Moon was a healer and a redeemer, Galaxia a terrible swift sword. Yet it was Galaxia, not Chaos, that looked at them, and the guilt and shame in her eyes made it clear that this was so. It did not change their opinions any, nor make them less fearful of her presence. Her eyes flickered around and then widened, narrowed, and sorrow grew when she saw toward the location of the Outer Senshi and saw that one was missing and the other donned armor more formidable than her own in appearance. Hers was akin to that of a Roman Legionary, Michiru's was far more encompassing. Michiru's reaction to her pity was clear hostility, and Galaxia blinked. All of the Senshi should have returned when Moon restored them all, as she had returned.

What had happened?

"What brings you to my domain?"

Only a century into the rule of Crystal Tokyo and Neo Queen Serenity had become in official contexts the high and remote Crystal Queen, a gap jarring enough Galaxia froze as she witnessed it and heard it.

"I am seeking atonement for the deeds I committed after my actions in the power and corruption of Chaos. Yours is the last world in this Galaxy I must turn to. I atone to each of the Senshi, but there is a problem here. One of yours is not here."

Serenity nodded.

"Uranus is......awaiting reincarnation."

Galaxia's eyes widened.

"Then, there is an issue. It will be all of the Senshi or none, and I will not depart without that atonement."

Her pride chafed at it, especially before the one that had defeated her, but Galaxia knelt.

"Neo Queen Serenity, until such time as the Senshi of Wind is reborn, and restored to her full power and has given me the atonement I seek, I shall seek to be one of your allies, working with your Senshi."

Serenity's eyes widened, narrowed, widened again. Michiru tensed, her teeth gritting and her aura powerful enough that Galaxia felt some respect for her, and for her emotions.

"Very well. On my terms, and at my control. only."

"Acceptable."

The other Senshi started, and Neptune chafed, her aura visible with crackling menace, before taking a deeper breath and stalking out the second the audience was over, slamming the door behind her.

"Was it something I said?"

The glares that met her were hostile enough even the mighty Galaxia found herself sheepish.

Only Hotaru patiently sought out her Michiru-mama as she was the only one she trusted her mother would not attack. Not feeling her in her room, she went to her Haruka-Papa's grave, and sat beside her, as her mother knelt, weeping unashamedly.

"That bitch replaced her," she growled, and it was not a friendly look in her eyes. Hotaru's hand was on her pauldron, and with enough strength that her shoulder felt it.

"She can't replace Haruka-papa, Michiru-mama. She's just filling in seeking....atonement, she said. She won't replace her. I doubt Queen Serenity would allow it even if she did want it."

Michiru's nose twitched, and she sighed.

"I'm sorry Hotaru, I've been terrible to you and Setsuna. I....." and with that, she suddenly hugged a startled Hotaru, as Setsuna quietly appeared at their side.

Great wrenching sobs left Hotaru further bemused, though Setsuna was understanding as she knelt beside them, and received her own hug.

"I've been trying to be strong and it's just.....when I saw her again I realized who I could become. Haruka wouldn't want that for me."

Hotaru nodded.

"But you shouldn't want that for you, either. She knew that, Michiru-mama."

Michiru nodded, wiping her eyes after she broke the hug, and sighed in sorrow.

"She'll come back. I'll want her to be proud of who I became when she does."

CENTURIES LATER:

Four hundred years later, four hundred long years where Galaxia and Neptune found themselves in an uneasy bloc defending the Outer Solar System from Youma and from an incursion of a hostile and clearly non-human species of alien, Neptune had returned to Earth. Her armor had become somewhat bulkier, reflecting her increased physical strength, and her desire to differentiate it, and her, from Galaxia. Galaxia's armor remained the same as ever. Haruka and Michiru were a natural team, Galaxia and Neptune were two uneasy powerhouses that could and did unleash absolute destruction and often as not had far too close calls with accidents. It even irritated Neptune that Galaxia wielded a greatsword, seemingly a mockery of Haruka's own.

They had returned to the Crystal Palace, refreshed by the triumph against the monstrous alien horde and its horribly organic starships that oozed something that was so horrifying at a metaphysical level that the heroic Galaxia was free to be as brutal as her corrupted self and even Michiru deemed it righteous.

It was a cold day in March, a new moon, with the stars shining, in the wee small hours of the morning. Michiru had been sleepless that night, seated on her throne in the shadows, her mirror's small glow the only light in the room. She still wore her armor, not changing it and showering until later, after she dozed off on the throne.

The mirror flashed, and she started. Then she closed her eyes, and as she sensed the change, so did Setsuna, Usagi, Rei, and Hotaru at first, and then all the Senshi.

For the first time in five hundred years the drawn and haggard face of Michiru broke into a genuine, truthful smile.

She spoke softly "Welcome back, my love," and returned to her quarters.

Her other half of her soul was back, in a new body, and it was time at last to start putting away the armor, and to let Michiru come back and Neptune become her title and her position. She sighed in relief, stretching, as the armor was placed caringly and even lovingly in its storage area, stretching and relieving kinks in her back. Then stepped into a shower with genuine relief.

It would be nearly two decades before she'd meet Uranus again, she already knew that. But where centuries had dragged on for eternity not knowing if Uranus would be reborn on Earth, if she would be so blessed as to see her soul reunite before the battlefield killed her.....now she could afford patience. Whoever Uranus was reborn as, it would not be the Haruka she knew, and it would not be fair to the one reborn with that old bond to put on her either the Silver Millennium Uranus, or the Haruka she'd known.

HOKKAIDO PREFECTURE, FORMER JAPAN:

In a small house in the outskirt of an outskirt, a woman with blonde hair looked down, relieved. It had been a very strange pregnancy, one interspersed with visits from the Maus of the Crystal Kingdom and cryptic statements from talking cats, a kind of entity that was still not fully accepted on the Earth five hundred years into the Crystal Kingdom. Her child was born, after a twenty-eight hour labor that had been painful, but relieved. On her head gleamed a circle and a kind of trident, blazing with brilliant mystical light, bright enough that in the dead of night in a new moon in a sky lit only by the stars themselves her room seemed lit as it would be at high noon.

She caressed her baby's cheek and said "Welcome to the world, Haruka Tenai," and kissed her baby's head. The Senshi were all well known, and so were their symbols. She could not resist a slight shudder at realizing the harsh fate that destiny had laid on her newborn daughter. To be the chosen heir of the old Haruka Tenoh of old Earth before the new Kingdom, and to be tied to the dreaded Sea-Queen in her green armor and fearsome presence. Five hundred years of Crystal Tokyo were plenty of times for Official History and Legends to spread, and around the Lost One, the dead Senshi, had more legends sprung than most, for the actual Guardian Uranus was not present, only the legendary Sailor Uranus and her persona in civilian life as a multi-talented speed demon.

And then after her death, the once-kind and loving concert violinist had become the dreadful Sea-Queen whose armor stood out among the Senshi, even the splendid shining Sailor Galaxia, and the old stories of her brilliance in music and grace became buried beneath an overburden of terror. And now this child, her daughter, had the weight of two lifetimes and a long and storied mythology laid on her. She made a quiet decision, then, before dreaming's quiet mists claimed her. If it was destiny for a Haruka and a Michiru to be together, then destiny would find a way. She would not teach her child that she had a single predetermined partner, and would give her the freedom to choose. What stories were there about the Senshi of the Wind indicated the old one had not welcomed being told things anyway.

Why would a new one do that?

As a nurse put her baby in a bassinet, she yielded into the quiet realms of dreams, and in them, Amara Tenkai, descended by distant degrees from the original Tenoh family, slept the most sound sleep she had in nine months.


	3. Old Times There are Not Forgotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haruka Tenkai grows up haunted by memories of two lifetimes she has dim memories of in one case and vivid ones with others. As she grows up, she decides that rather than yield to a predetermined fate to embark on a foolish act of rebellion purely out of desperation of trying to stop fate. Michiru finds herself caught between wanting to see the reborn Uranus and not trying to force the new Uranus into being the old one.

TENKAI HOUSE, HOKKAIDO PREFECTURE: 

Haruka Tenkai would meet the Queen of the Crystal Empire three times before she began her Senshi training, but all of the Senshi only once. The first she would never remember, and was the day after her birth. Her mother was still recuperating in the bed, and in that singular time all of the Senshi had gathered, which left her mother trembling. They were divine beings in truth, particularly the Queen, who in a rare occasion wore her old Fuku, with Chibi-Usa at her side. The baby was unnaturally quiet and attentive, even as Haruka slept a sound sleep that made her look between them uncertainly. Only one of the Senshi was conspicuous in her absence, Galaxia deeming her presence to be an invasion of something private, and instead drilling herself with a combat robot instead. The gesture was one of the very first times that the other Senshi freely welcomed one of her decisions with full sincerity and something like grudging respect.

Mercury shone with the icy brilliance that was natively hers, her gaze shy as she saw the infant, and was furthest away.

Just near her was Jupiter, whose eyes were misty as were those of all the Senshi, and who gazed with a soft smile on her face. Amara liked Jupiter and Mercury instinctively, and felt that she could trust them.

The King and the Queen both were next, and the look of softness and nostalgia on their faces reminded her of that heavy burden. If she liked and instinctively trusted Jupiter and Mercury, the warmth of Neo-Queen Serenity's light was a soothing balm in her veins.

Venus was just before them, smiling most broadly of all of them, not the hyperactive Minako but the smiling-yet-stoic-in-body-language Venus, who stood at a military parade rest, the only Guardian to be thus positioned.

Mars was preparing the formal prayer and rite, and her gestures betrayed that she was far more emotionally affected than she let on, and the fiery heat within her veins. She was brilliant enough with the aura near-visible to Amara that she could never quite focus on her. Closest to her were the three Outer Senshi. Saturn was the only one bold enough to touch her baby, and where she would have instinctively reacted to anyone else, and to any others of the Senshi, Tenoh Hotaru was the one that was trusted most after the King and Queen. Her gentle brushing of the baby's hair was one that was wistful, as was the quiet "Now I know how you must have felt, Haruka-Papa" from her.

Pluto stood just to Saturn's right, the smile on her face sweet but sad, and she looked at the baby with a deeper sense of nostalgia.

Neptune was the one she had the most potential worry about, her brutality on the battlefield and the great suit of armor she wore were no secret. Yet she wore the Fuku of the Eternal Sailor Neptune, and her gaze toward the baby was the one with the most conflicting emotions. She expected the love and sweetness she saw. She did not expect the wistful melancholy and the other indescribable emotions, nor that when Michiru asked with an inclining of her head and had permission to briefly brush Haruka's hair that her baby's eyes would open and instead of crying a look of something very much older there for a micro-second.

Neptune's eyes widened with this and she stepped back, slightly, and Amara felt some relief.

Her preparations done, Hino Rei began the rite, each of the other Senshi kneeling save the King and the Queen, who went to Haruka and raised over her the Silver and Golden Crystals that blessed her with Senshi power. Her symbol blazed again and each of the other ones blazed around her and in a flash of light. The words she could not fully hear, she was not sure if they were Japanese or some kind of ritual language of the old Lunar Kingdom, but she understood the emotions. When it was done, the Senshi mostly left, leaving for a brief moment only the King, Queen, and Outer Senshi.

The King and Queen would take their leave next, but not before Neo-Queen Serenity went to her and said "I know she's in good hands with you, Amara. Much better than her first mother. My parents never knew I was a Senshi, let alone a Princess, when they raised me. You will. You will have the help and the protection of the Crystal Kingdom against anyone or anything that tries to hurt her."

Amara smiled softly and bowed as much as she could from her hospital bed.

And then there were three.

Pluto said nothing, not that she could remember, and it was Saturn who spoke again. She was known to be the second-youngest of the Guardians, after the newborn princess, and her eyes turned to Haruka.

She looked back at Amara when she spoke: "A long time ago, when I was just Sailor Saturn, I was reborn after bringing my glaive down. The Haruka-Papa I knew raised me, taught me how to do things. If it is all right with you, and ultimately with Neo-Queen Serenity, when it's time for her Senshi training, I wish to be her trainer."

Amara smiled gently.

Tenoh Hotaru's smile was genuine and deep and yet there was a sense of fragility, and even of impatience. Five hundred years without her Haruka-Papa was too long. And yet....this baby was the Haruka-Papa she knew and yet she wasn't. It would take a fine effort to balance that.

Michiru moved closer, looking at her.

Amara's gaze was wary, and Michiru finally decided to bite the bullet.

"Why are you so fearful of my being around her?"

"I know who you are relative to her. Who your souls are. I.......I don't want her to feel obligated to be so close to you she can't be safe. I won't keep her from you, Princess of Neptune. I would never do that. But.....she's my daughter, too. Not just your destined lover."

Neptune released a breath, that wasn't quite what she'd expected and the bile she'd started to feel was lanced.

"I would not do that to her, either. I made a lot of mistakes with the Sailor Uranus I knew."

Her smile was sad and the fragility in her gestures and emotions very much visible to all of them.

"And after she told me to wait for her. I have growth of my own to do, and I won't be near done when she's ready for training."

Amara nodded.

"Can I hold her?"

Amara nodded again and handed her over.

Michiru held the baby Haruka in her arms and smiled her first genuine smile of a kind that hadn't been seen in five hundred years.

"Your soul came back, Uranus. You told me to live, and I lived a half-life because that was easier. I have much to do to be worthy of you as you have always been with me."

She smiled and handed the baby back to Amara.

"Raise her as your daughter, don't try to put Senshi destiny on her."

Her smile was fragile and her motions stiff, but the sorrow and hope intermingled were likewise visible, as Hotaru smiled at her in turn sadly.

"I have hope again, for the first time in five hundred years, and I don't know how to say it well, why it is that I do."

Amara watched as Haruka yawned and went back to sleep.

"I understand. Your soul loves hers, doesn't it?"

Michiru nodded, her eyes misty.

Amara smiled. "We'll see what life brings."

With that the Senshi all, finally, left.

HARUKA TENKAI, AGE TEN:

Only once would the Senshi of Neptune and the future Senshi of Uranus meet when Haruka had a conscious memory of it. Ever since she was young, Haruka had found herself astronomically fast, so fast that things were boring with a regular racing partner. She'd taken to racing robots made specifically to race, enjoying the competition. She had, from when she was a kid, likewise had a strange relationship with the wind. At times it seemed to speak to her, and it had saved her and her mother from danger. And there were the dreams. Of a shining kingdom of silver beauty and of a woman with aqua hair and eyes.

The her in her dreams had short cropped hair, so Haruka let hers grow to shoulder length, her first quiet rebellion against a sense of destiny. At times, and it was like an older version of herself within her seemed to think, there were flashes of thoughts about how the wind should be free, and at times still other thoughts equally older than she was and she did not like them. It felt like something else, deep inside. Something dangerous.

Dreams of fights against monsters and against a more malevolent-seeming variant of the fearsome Sailor Galaxia, Sword of the Outer System. Ever since she was a kid, nightmares vied with softer dreams. Only a few of them let her guarantee a good night's sleep, and almost all of them involved one or two or all three people. The tall and quiet Meioh Setsuna, Guardian of Pluto, a very young Hotaru who was often her own age in dreams and those dreams in particular the quietest and the sweetest. And the Aqua-haired Senshi of the Ocean, who share with the ocean depths and wonder and a sense of blatant, terrifying danger. There were flashes of childhood meetings of a version of her her own age and a version of Neptune her own age as well and an emotion Haruka neither understood nor wanted to understand very hard.

So she ran, wanting to be like the wind where confusing emotions and physical changes meant nothing, only the freedom of an element that was hers in a sense she understood but dimly. She ran and she blurred, free, wishing that she could fly like the Guardians but she didn't know if she could or not, not yet.

And then she stopped. Seated at the track, watching her run, was Guardian Neptune in civilian clothes, a light sundress and a wide-brimmed hat to shield her from the heat.

Haruka froze.

"I know you, don't I?"

Neptune smiled, and lifted herself up, levitating and then landing.

With a lip quirk Haruka would only come to understand later, she heard an old question:

"You can hear the wind blowing, can't you?"

Haruka blinked and with a flash of an old meeting, she rolled her eyes.

"You're weird," and she ran off, back to her running.

She did not see the strange looks that crossed Michiru's face, nostalgia-warmth-sadness-amusement-hope-sorrow-joy, in a pattern that an artist would have wanted to catch in photographs had one been around. Michiru finally settled on contentment. Some things changed, but Haruka had not that much, nor in that way. She was happier than she was sad with all of this. She was gone well before Haruka was done racing. 

HARUKA, AGE FIFTEEN:

Unknown to Haruka, Seiya Kou and her now-wife, Princess Kakyuu, had returned to Earth after a century and a half absence. On learning that Sailor Uranus had been reincarnated, Seiya couldn't resist the temptation, not that too many people made some effort to stop her. She had gone to Hokkaido Prefecture and the house that the Tenkai family had, in the northernmost outposts of the island. Old Ainu territory and still Ainu, as were the Tenohs, now Tenkai. Haruka was just finished on a piano piece, having played a piano on a visit to a neighbor's house on a whim and found herself fascinated and horrified at the skill that flowed unthinkingly, and finding that this, like the running she had started but could not stop was a trait of the old Sailor Uranus.

She wanted more of her own than her longer hair, and had taken to dressing in a more overtly feminine fashion than the older Sailor Uranus had. Her body, from images she'd seen and the statue she'd only seen pictures of, was as curvy as the other woman's. She had never understood why she didn't try to flaunt what she had. She had no such problems and no such hesitations, and it was thus the image of a reborn Haruka Tenoh in short shorts and a crop top that greeted Seiya when she landed by her house.

Haruka froze instantly when she saw her, and an immediate dislike formed, her brows furrowing in a sharp glare.

"Who the Hell are you?"

The tall woman smirked, twirling her ponytail.

"Kou Seiya, of Kinmoku."

"I don't like you. I don't know why, I don't know you, but I don't like you."

Seiya smirked.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Haruka raised an eyebrow. For a moment a strange kind of nostalgia hit Seiya at how the reborn Sailor Uranus so perfectly duplicated the facial expression of the old one, and then she made a derisory snort.

"I thought Neptune was weird but you? If I find you acting like that vampire from that Old Earth novel series in my room at night I'm gonna kick your ass."

Seiya blinked, then grinned impishly. Not the old Uranus but this would be no less fun.

It would, however, be somewhat odd for a mature Senshi to hang around a teenager for too long and with that she spoke her transformation and as Haruka watched, a flash of memory came to her. _A beautiful white dress and a woman with aqua hair, a smile, and a....man, maybe....in a red suit._ For a moment she saw red and then shook her head in confusion.

"What the fuck?"

Shrugging, she went back to running, trying to become one with the wind.

That night she dreamed for the first time of a brilliant sword that flashed and of a power that shook worlds.

HARUKA AGE EIGHTEEN:

Three years later, Haruka would meet both the Queen and Michiru, and in a set of circumstances that were rather confusing for her. After the flashback with the white dress, some strange force had made her start learning voraciously about Guardian Neptune. The more she read, the more there were memories, including one that made her freeze. An older version of her that same age had run, and then:

_Haruka panted, relaxed. Racing always calmed her down, the part of her that was the wind was drawn into that which was her body and it was a sacred experience with a thousand words she could not speak and so she did not. She saw one of her friends coming toward her. The American, Elsa Grey. The young pretty Black girl smiled and said "I have someone who wishes to meet you. Meet Michiru Kaioh, the prodigious painter!"_

_"You were hardly trying."_

_Haruka raised an eyebrow._

_"You can hear the wind blowing, can't you?"_

She blinked, shook her head. Michiru.....that was the same Guardian that had been there when she was running, years ago. Not looking where she was going, she missed that a brilliant flash of light had followed, as a starship opened fire in her general direction, the ship trailing flames from where Sailor Galaxia had hurled her sword through it before calling the sword back. Haruka froze in utter bemusement as the escape hatch opened and she then ran the other direction, only to freeze again. Behind her rose a shambling thing that was clearly not human, with six limbs and reddish eyes, and it spoke in a clearly non-human tongue. Before her was Michiru, clad not in a sundress but in that suit of armor, her eyes blazing with an aura that awed her and led to feelings Haruka knew were there and was terrified to accept.

Michiru turned her gaze straight into Haruka's eyes.

She spoke a single word in a low and precise tone:

"Run."

Sailor Galaxia landed atop the second ship, smirking triumphantly as she raised her sword and Michiru raised her talisman.

_Deep Submerge!_

Haruka was a good dozen feet away in a burst of speed but somehow she not only sensed Michiru's raw power but she felt it, and it left her awed and trembling. The long-dead Sailor Uranus was said to be power, but she knew what was within her, though she didn't know what was within the old Tenoh Haruka. It was not like this. Before she had thought of Kaioh Michiru as a tsunami and the presence of her Guardian abilities as the moment of impact. Here? Her target was idle as a painted ship on a painted ocean held before a rogue wave of colossal power, a wave filled with monsters of the deep. The blast struck the alien and it stared stupidly, the impact killing it with the concussive force clear through its armor, the alien falling unconscious.

Then she saw the other woman in golden armor, a kind akin to what the history book she'd read once and vaguely remembered showed of the old Roman Empire's army. A flash of memory and of a sword through the spine and she ran again. Galaxia frowned a bit in sorrow, though she noticed Michiru's possessive move. Still irritated more than slightly at how she'd managed, by effort and clear determination to win the acceptance, though not yet the atonement she'd sought, of the Senshi of the Crystal Empire save Michiru, these reminders rankled much more than slightly.

She cleaned off her sword and sheathed it behind her back and shrugged, shoulders slumping slightly.

Michiru stopped her with a hand on her shoulder and Galaxia turned.

"It's not that I don't trust you, we took down four starships and these two made it here. If something else had gotten through-"

With a sudden effortless motion she unleashed a blast of energy from her talisman that slew the last alien that had tried to sneak from an alley to take down the as-yet-unawakened Haruka, "your attacks are powerful. That entire neighborhood would be rubble and she might....I might..."

Galaxia paused, then her shoulders slumped in a different level.

"i'm sorry, Michiru. I'm too quick to take offense and judge people in the worst ways, still."

Michiru nodded stiffly.

"If you're still wondering why your atonement's lagging, imagine how that is with people who are less......restrained....with what's inside them than I am."

Galaxia stared behind her for a moment, blinking, then shook her head and facepalmed. She had regained who she was, and her power, but she still had much growing up to do.

A few days later, Haruka and her mother received the King and the Queen in their yard, her mother bowing stiffly, as did Haruka, though with the bow unconscious of a Guardian fully awakened. Usagi's eyes widened briefly and then she smiled.

"In a week's time, you and your mother will be moving to the Palace. The attack on you was not a coincidence, and as you are to begin your training in the next year, you will need the protection of the palace and the veteran Guardians and so will she."

Neo-Queen Serenity's face became very sad for a moment.

"I never thought to do that with mama, papa, and Shinjo. I should have. I can spare you my mistake, and I will."

Haruka bowed more deeply and sincerely, this time, with a relieved smile on her face, and so did her mother.

But that night, Haruka felt the pull to defy destiny once more. She did not know how true this was for the old Haruka Tenoh, or if it had ever been true and she so devoted to her Michiru that it never came up, but then that Haruka did not have the burden of two lifetimes, one ever more fully remembered weighing at her.

That Haruka would have done and did do foolish things in her lifetime, though she would never have taken the risk that Haruka Tenkai at sixteen did. Haruka was able to tap, subconsciously, into some of the appearance-altering magic that made her seem older. She was able to thus sneak into a bar and get shitfaced drunk, not at all concerned with her attire that evening. She was angry, she was frustrated, she wanted to do an act of spite to destiny, to try to prevent a third death before Michiru and to present her with....issues.

When a burly figure with a hairy chest went toward her, he sniffed her breath and decided that she was too intoxicated for what she wanted, though he had no problems accepting her kiss. Staggering out drunk, Haruka harrumphed that nobody wished to take her up on her offer, only to feel something strange. Unknown to her, Senshi healing meant that it was impossible to stay as drunk for long as mortals did, and there was no such thing as a hangover, a pleasant aspect of Senshi magic that meant that Hino Rei often abused it mercilessly, as did Aino Minako.

Freshly sober, Haruka's shoulders slumped slightly when she felt a finger on her bare shoulder and whirled around. She smiled at a different sense at Isonash, one of the few people who'd known of her destiny, and not been afraid of it, or of the wrath of Kaioh Michiru the Sea-Goddess. She was horny, she was angry, she wanted to defy fate, and she was also eighteen years old, desperate, and impulsive. All of these would be noted into the indefinite future when she feared the wrath of Michiru, but for now, there was just what she could grasp in three minutes of something that was....it was there.

And it confirmed for her that however bisexual she was, men would never be near as impressive as women, certainly not the woman that danced in her memories with the haunting tune of a violin.

Haruka gave what had happened in that alley no thought, not concerned at any ramifications. It had let her release things that had had no release, and satisfied her curiosity. She had thrown her rebellion at this angle, too......and here, if in few other aspects, she shrugged.

Sex was a matter of physical things, it was not her, and it was not really going to be her. But she had to know.

A brief flash of an old set of mistakes that the old Haruka had made hit with the image of a yelling man and a thrown wine bottle that fell to the ground in a flash and she again shook her head, That was not her.

A week later, they were fully packed and it was not the Queen who came to see her, it was a woman who opened the door with the warmest smile she'd ever seen.

"Hello Haruka Tenkai, I am Tenoh Hotaru."

Haruka found in her pocket something that she took out and stared at in a complete bemusement that led Hotaru to giggle sweetly.

"That is a Henshin stick. Come with me and you'll learn how it works."

Amara laughed softly and they took their luggage with them to the plane, giving the house of her childhood one last, sad look.

She remembered a poem she'd read in a translation into Japanese from old Earth.

_Where many were/how few remain/of old familiar things._

And with that she stepped into the plane and into the merciless light of destiny.

She never knew that that same evening, under the impression that she was still in that house by a carefully laid glamour of one of the newly revived Shitennou, the same aliens that had tried to prevent her resurrection returned in larger number and that Michiru, Galaxia, and Neo-Queen Serenity with Endymion personally ensured that the absolute destruction of the attack happened, leaving uncertainty as shield and time to gather. 

Nor did she know that as soon as the Henshin stick appeared in her pocket the long-dead Miranda Castle began to experience the first stirrings of life and of a mystic humming as she who wielded its power was starting to come into her own...

And it would have surprised her, though not Neptune, that the moment Miranda came into awakening, so did Triton. To the normal static and radiation-music of the spheres came the first music of Uranus and Neptune, the silent worlds beginning at last to know life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we get Haruka's POV for the first time. 
> 
> After this, the chapters will alternate POVs during and sometimes whole chapters between Hotaru, Michiru, Setsuna, and Haruka. With a few from the perspective of Galaxia.


	4. 'A generation comes, a Generation Goes, verily there is nothing new under the Sun'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Newly moved into the Crystal Palace, Tenkai Haruka begins her training with Tenoh Hotaru. Memories of her past self begin to stir, and a very old enemy begins to make its return.

THE GALACTIC CAULDRON:

It had been centuries since the apocalyptic clash between Moon, Cosmos, and Galaxia had ended in the rebirth of the last and the hurling of Chaos within the Cauldron. Centuries where only a few Youma with whisps of lesser power existed, centuries where Chaos had been quiescent. Yet now, now......

A hellish light erupted from the Cauldron and a being levitated up and out. Clad in deep black armor with a kanji representing the Amatsu Mikaboshi, the entity vaguely resembled a human from one perspective. At another the skin was waxy pale, the head bald. The eyes crimson-hued things with catlike pupils, miniature suns blazing in the point-eared face. The teeth were not teeth, they were fangs. Sailor Chaos, the prophesied rebirth of the Great Enemy, flexed great batlike wings, releasing a silent shriek through the infinite reaches of space. First the rebirth......then the reckoning.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE:

Amara Tenkai had a new room now more spacious than her old house. It awed her with the opulence and beauty, the gap between the center of one of the greatest powers in the Galaxy and the small provincial home. Yet she deliberately wrote old wards in Kanji, but of the Ainu language. Her birth language and that of the Tenoh-Tenkai family. She had no real fear of enemies, not here. The Great Enemy was dead for a very long time, and no lesser foe could dare strike at the heart of the Palace itself. For all her kindness to Michiru, she could not help but fear her, and that anything Michiru would deem imperfect in her daughter, whatever her words, would become a risk to her own life. The woman she'd seen had displayed flashes of kindness, but the Ocean-Goddess had not earned her fearsome reputation for nothing. And her mourning for Haruka had become so much a part of her personality, leavened by the hopes of her rebirth. And now, with Sailor Uranus reborn, and now, with her in the palace and having a new room in the Senshi quarters.....

She did her best not to display any of that distrust. The Senshi were all of them superhuman and immortal beings and it was whispered that thoughts were no obstacle to them. She had a new home she could have never imagined in the safest place in Crystal Tokyo. She did not want to seem....ungrateful.

THE TRAINING GROUNDS:

Built in the wake of the Last Battle, the Training Grounds were designed even to give Sailor Galaxia a good workout, and more than over-fufilled on that promise. And what was a good solid workout for Galaxia would leave the other Senshi still more exhausted and overwhelmed, a lot of the time. Neptune and Saturn the exceptions.

Tenoh Hotaru looked at the eighteen year old who was staring at it in awe. Physical obstacle courses, various combat droids for training purposes. A crater-strewn ground where the Senshi tested and developed use of and experimentation with their powers. In the old days she had taken the staggering power of her Haruka-papa for granted, until the thing had torn itself out of the freeze and murdered her before her eyes. Michiru's mourning and her possessiveness to Haruka were well-known. In point of fact, her Michiru-Mama had made a point to go to her planet, which was starting to hum with the music buried for the long centuries, to avoid giving herself any grounds to yield to that.

For Hotaru, there was the memory of not being able to heal a father far better to her than her own. Tomoe Souichi had been a monster, and Tenoh Haruka? She'd learned of her family trying to kill her, and there had been a painful moment or several moments for her, for all of them. Yet there was forgiveness, too, and understanding. The Galaxia incident when her father had fought so hard to protect her and then fallen into Galaxia's clutches, and had to make that decision, the one where she had slain her back then. The sheer agony in Haruka-Papa's face had struck her and all the resentments of that memory of the initial fear of killing her faded, ironically enough, when her parents did kill her and her Setsuna-mama.

And then after other adventures had come the Freeze and Haruka-papa dying in Michiru-mama's hands, and the power that was her birthright had failed and proven useless. She owed her Haruka-papa's rebirth a lot of things, a chance to atone for the old failings of the old Outer Senshi, to give her another family that could accept her and love her. To show her that being the youngest of the Senshi did not invalidate people's truths or realities of who they were and who they are, and who they could be.

The passage of emotions and memories had not taken very long, and she spoke her transformation phase, the dress of Queen Hotaru of Saturn transforming into the Fuku.

Haruka Tenkai remained pensive, staring at the Henshin in her hands;

A memory flashed through her:

_"Don't touch it! If you touch it, your life will change and you'll never get it back!"_

_An older her who was younger than she was saw a beautiful, stunningly so, woman with a fuku and aqua hair appearing as if out of nowhere, blasting the towering abomination that had sought to attack her with the mystic power of the Ocean._ The older her had nearly been convinced not to take the Henshin. She felt Saturn's transformation and was awed at the sheer sense of power that surged through her. 

Neptune was the mightiest of the Senshi of the Solar system, the hub of the Outer Solar System as Neptune was of the physical space therein. Saturn was the mightiest in raw power terms of all the Senshi, the embodiment of Death and Rebirth, the greatest healer after the Princess. She had at least in part wondered if Neptune wouldn't train her, but.....in retrospect she was deeply grateful that it was violet-eyed Hotaru who did.

She held the Henshin before her and felt its power and that of Miranda and the Guardian-spirit of Miranda surging into her, and a rush of power that filled her with sensations she had never remotely imagined. She was nude, for a moment in time, and then clad anew in the fuku of a Senshi, feeling what seemed to be a leotard with a skirt that was much more than that. A metaphysical armor as potent if not moreso as Guardian Neptune's rugged suit of armor, deceptively, very deceptively, revealing.

_Uranus planet power make-up!_

A simple phrase for such a complex transformation, and there, for the first time in nearly a millennium, stood Sailor Uranus.

Guardian Saturn could not resist the sense of familiarity that looked at her, even with the strangeness that Sailor Uranus was now as young relative to her as she had been, once, relative to the rest of the Senshi. Tenkai Haruka was not the perfect mirror of her long-dead father, her hair was longer and she was much more at ease in her feminine appearance, yet no less capable of asserting the rugged devil-may-care masculinity of her father with a glance that for a moment seemed to be that of Tenoh Haruka. Unknown to either of them, the King and the Queen teleported over to the training ground.

Neo-Queen Serenity could not resist the temptation to see her lost Senshi return and to see and to feel the energy of the transformation. Endymion could not lie to himself that he missed Sailor Uranus, too. With Neptune rebuilding her planet and Galaxia patrolling the edge of the Solar System with Small Lady and her own quartet of Senshi by her side learning combat from one of Outer Space's greatest specialists, they were the only ones on Earth besides Hotaru at this moment. When Tenkai Haruka had taken her Henshin and let the transformation's energies flow, speaking the words of power, a small part of the aching wounds of the death of one of the Senshi at the beginning of the Crystal Empire began to be healed.

All the Senshi were scarred by the death of the first Uranus, if none as spectacularly as her soulmate, for obvious reasons. After the transformation was complete, the King and the Queen revealed themselves and Tenkai Haruka looked at them for a moment with a gaze that was not quite her own. It took all of Neo-Queen Serenity's carefully won reserve not to burst into tears at the glimpse of her departed friend, even moreso when the moment passed.

The Queen's gaze was a kindly one, and Sailor Uranus looked at her with an aloofness less total than Haruka's but no less meaningful for that.

"Good luck with your training, Sailor Uranus. When it's complete, I will ask you to swear an oath to me."

Uranus nodded, stiffly.

The King and Queen teleported away, and then she looked to Guardian Saturn.

"So, where to begin," she mused.

"I know you're fast." Her finger tapped her chin. 

"Can you use your attack?"

Uranus stared at her blankly.

"And.....how do I do that, exactly?"

Saturn shrugged, as she wasn't entirely sure herself.

Another memory flashed through her mind. The first time she'd transformed in combat:

_It was another day early in the career of Uranus and Neptune. Neptune had recovered from the wounds she'd taken in that garage, on that day. More monsters had arisen, two of them, transforming from two people who had just fallen, bleeding from the nose and even the eyes and become vast and swollen maggot-like creatures with a reddish hue. Neptune was awe-inspiring in battle, the sheer roiling surge of her power something that was like a tsunami making landfall._

_She had never quite launched her own attack yet, and then one of the creatures lunged toward her. Energy began to wreathe around her and a great sphere formed, its power briefly taking away Neptune's own breath, amplified by the winds swirling around her. Uranus, Senshi of the Sky and the Wind, hurled a great sphere at the monster:_

_World Shaking!_

_The sphere impacted and as the_

_Deep Submerge!_

_Struck the second, the two were driven back toward each other, exhausted. The two kept up the attacks twice more and then the monsters were people again. Uranus looked at her henshin. In her hands, such a little thing could command such great destruction._

Tenkai Haruka looked at the cratered ground before her, wondering just how a lunar landscape could exist in the heart of the palace and why. Giving into the imagery and sensation of her memory, she began to call upon her power. Miranda Castle pulsed and another wave of life-creating energy rippled out to affect Uranus, the Mirror humming in unity with the Sword that in the castle began to glow with life and the reawakening of its master.

Golden streaks of energy began to gather around her, the very air moving in unity, the element responding to the one who commanded it. Saturn's jaw gaped slightly, it had been so long since she'd seen this, since her last memories of her father were her bleeding to death in the arms of her mother that she forgot how stupefyingly powerful Uranus was. Why she'd never wasted time on such a thing as strategy and simply bullrushed opponents with a power that in nine of ten cases was overwhelmingly superior. The energy drew into a great sphere, a low wailing sound like that of a tornado accompanying it.

_World Shaking!_

Two words that had not been heard outside memories and the old legacies of the fallen Uranus were spoken again.

The sphere lanced out and struck into the cratered ground, landing with a tremendous booming sound that echoed in the palace like the dropping of a fuel-air explosive.

Uranus looked at her hands. She could do this, without any-

She looked to Tenoh Hotaru, whose smile was broad and marked by emotions that Tenkai Haruka only partially understood.

"Wonderful!"

Tenkai Haruka smiled in turn, and soon was starting to learn of the specifics of Senshi power and that as the fastest of the Senshi, combined with the strengths and skills of a baseline Senshi that there were abilities she could command that made the World Shaking itself seem as nothing. When told of the power to fly, she remembered that element that was in almost all of her dreams. The dreams of flying, of welcoming who she was, and what she was. Kneeling, she calmed herself. She was the mistress of the winds....she found herself levitating in the vast dome of the training room, a dome that loomed in the center of the palace to the height of a small mountain. Levitation....and then consciously moving in the air, gravity seeking to hold her as a sullen lover and failing. The rush, the sheer incongruity of achieving one of the very oldest dreams surged through her and she laughed in genuine delight. Hotaru let herself take flight, too, meeting her in the air. 

"See?"

Haruka looked at her.

"It's scary, yes, but it has its moments." Her smile was impish, and then she told her "Now I want to see if you're as fast as my Haruka-papa was. I could never catch her when we did this exercise. No-one could." A shadow crossed her face and her eyes briefly shined with tears, and the desire not to see them fall led to a strangely paternal emotion crossing Tenkai Haruka's face, and then she began to move at a stupendous speed that never failed to awe Hotaru. Taking the moment gracefully, she sough to see if she could catch her. Even with the new Uranus newly and fully awakened to her Senshi power and prowess, and with her a veteran of various clashes in the distant and recent pasts and the rebuilding of Saturn itself, Hotaru found that the Wind could not be caught when it did not wish to be.

Two hours of this and she was satisfied.

A shadow crossed her face again as both landed and Tenkai Haruka exulted in the new abilities that were there, and there in the greatest sense, and the tears returned. Her Haruka-papa had been equally fast and what had it gotten her?

She clutched her glaive tightly. Then she had been too weak. They had all been. They would not allow history to repeat itself. The emotions that were concealed behind a carefully impassive mask gave her an inkling of the demons roused to risk consuming her Michiru-mama. She knew what that had done to her, the imagery of her beautiful violinist mother become the fearsome sea-goddess in that pseudo-samurai armor. Michiru and Makoto had fallen hardest, but it, and the reminder of their own vulnerability and mortality, ached at all of them.

Uranus de-transformed, relieved and content.

"Well, I think that went well," she smirked.

Detransforming likewise, Hotaru nodded in turn.

"Yes it did. Meet me at the same place every day, for about the same time."

Uranus's nod was dignified and displayed a bit of the same blend of stiffness and awkwardness and speed as her father. Another stab of emotion hit her with a sharp pain and she suppressed it. Tenkai Haruka was not her father....but she owed her to be better to her than they had all proven to be that day.

EDGE OF THE OORT CLOUD:

The Amazon Quartet and Small Lady Serenity were never at ease around Galaxia. Her desires to atone were sincere, but her mentality regularly displayed elements of the same cold and cruel arrogance. None other of the Senshi had such flagships as a method of transport, especially not one slaved to their power as a casual illustration of it. And yet as a fighter, only Neptune of the Solar System's Senshi and Star Fighter of Kinmoku had built reputations of power and prowess to even be worthy of shining equally. Galaxia retained a ruthlessness and a military focus unlike that of the other Senshi Small Lady knew.

She was awesomely powerful, only her mother, Neo-Queen Serenity, Eternal Sailor Moon, had any kind of prowess to match her in raw power. She knew on paper she could and eventually would match her mother but it seemed some time away yet. Part of her ached to be with her Hotaru, but she knew that Hotaru was focused on seeing what, if anything, the new Sailor Uranus would be. And part of her had still never forgiven a dead woman for souring so much of her mother's kingdom. She vowed then as the patrol continued that when she returned she would go back to Hotaru, and give her something she seldom saw from the woman she loved:

An apology, an admission of error, and of her failings.

Then the five of them saw Galaxia frozen and gazing to what would have been the northwest on a planet, though such directions were meaningless in space.

"It has awoken."

The undertone of fear in that, the sharp huffing sound, the eye-twitch, and more viscerally the odor of fear along with all of it made the five Senshi of the next generation start.

"What has?" Small Lady's voice was quiet, though a quavering tone to it could not disguise fear of whatever made Galaxia in turn afraid.

"The Great Enemy."

Galaxia went to her command throne as they followed her.

"We're returning to Crystal Tokyo. Neo-Queen Serenity and the people of Kinmoku need to be warned. The Great Enemy will come for Earth first, because she destroyed it. But......where one dies, all shall die."

With that the ship slaved to her will began to glow with teleportation energy. The Galactic Cauldron was some fifty thousand light years away. Even if Sailor Chaos awoke, it would take it time to feel its way back to strength, and it would not come alone. On those thin elements did the new Senshi retain a sense of hope. In a flash of light, Galaxia's flagship found itself materializing where it had that first time she had returned.

When it did, another flash of light followed and teleported onto the flagship, and then one other. From both of them emerged tall and dark-skinned crimson-eyed Pluto, Guardian of Time, and the samurai-armored Neptune, her mirror incongruously held in one pauldron, one of the swords she'd enchanted attached to another. The parallelism between the two armored Senshi was not lost on Small Lady, though she hoped the return of Uranus would start to mitigate this with Neptune, at least.

The ship was silent. The Great Enemy, Chaos......the last time they had fought it had been with the fallen Galaxia as its anchor and then attempted and failed destroyer. Now.....now at least Galaxia was on their side.

Michiru remained in the shadows with the only light in her part of the ship that of her mirror and the traces of her power in her eyes. Even here, she felt the return of Uranus. And now.......now she had to return to face Tenkai Haruka knowing that she had failed her past self twice over. She took a deep breath and stepped into the light. She believed, abstractly, that when she and the reborn Uranus met it would be possible to see only the girl who was now, not the lover who was. Then again, she had finally taken the moment to let her world live again. From death, life. That had to count for something, didn't it?


End file.
